The Mercado Central is in the heart of the Baixa, a dense, noisy spread of stalls under tin roofs and the open sky. Fish from the night's catch in the morning, fruit and vegetables piled up in tidy pyramids, big sacks of cassava and rice, lengths of patterned capulana cloth — everything that everyone in Pemba uses passes through here.
Go early, before the heat builds. Some Portuguese is helpful; the language of trade is mostly Makua and Portuguese.